Just want to give you a brief training status update. Less than 7 months til D-day now and other than this ongoing calf muscle problem I feel pretty good. Of course it's all a state of mind so who knows whether I'm actually getting fit or not.
My focus for the last 2 months has been on improving my cycling and I feel very good about that discipline right now. I do 4 very intense, very structured, workouts every week, and I'm just loving it. I never thought I could get passionate about riding inside but the difference clearly is the aforementioned structure. Because of the computrainer you get constant accurate feedback irrespective of wind or weather conditions. The program I am doing promises a 10% improvement after 20 weeks, and less than half way through I already know I'm gonna blow that away. Of course the 10% is in power output which is not proportionate to speed. What I'm dreaming about is a 20% power improvement which may get me close to the 10% speed improvement. Time will tell.
As to my other favorite place, the swimming pool, I'm not sure what to make of things right now. I truly believe that I have made significant improvements in my form and technique, but so far that has translated into exactly nothing....or maybe less than nothing. I will just keep plugging away for another month or so on drills and trying to do things right, and then build my endurance. I'm comfortable that I still have lots of time for that, and in the end if I'm even slower than before, so be it.
Because of the extremely tough bike sessions I am down to running only twice a week but I'm okay with that. With the calf muscle problem any more than that wouldn't fly anyway. My Saturday run is now at 30 kms and I will probably leave it at that until the Bay Race at the end of March. I am still undecided if I will run a marathon in April. Probably my soleus muscle will make that decision for me.
Again because of the bike workouts I found it impossible to maintain leg weights as well. I now do one upper body session per week, and am considering increasing that to 2. Not sure yet.
My diet goes along not too badly, but not great either. I need to hone my skills a little bit.
And most important of all my head is staying screwed on fairly well. I get a bit anxious now and again as I'm sure most people do, but no real threat of depression....touch wood...
And aside from training I have decided that while a job of some kind is probably in my future it will have to wait until after Aug 18th. I intend on making this Ironman, and this summer, all about fun!
So, Try Not! Game on! And lets' do it once more, this time in French. Encore mes amis!!
Love
Peter
My focus for the last 2 months has been on improving my cycling and I feel very good about that discipline right now. I do 4 very intense, very structured, workouts every week, and I'm just loving it. I never thought I could get passionate about riding inside but the difference clearly is the aforementioned structure. Because of the computrainer you get constant accurate feedback irrespective of wind or weather conditions. The program I am doing promises a 10% improvement after 20 weeks, and less than half way through I already know I'm gonna blow that away. Of course the 10% is in power output which is not proportionate to speed. What I'm dreaming about is a 20% power improvement which may get me close to the 10% speed improvement. Time will tell.
As to my other favorite place, the swimming pool, I'm not sure what to make of things right now. I truly believe that I have made significant improvements in my form and technique, but so far that has translated into exactly nothing....or maybe less than nothing. I will just keep plugging away for another month or so on drills and trying to do things right, and then build my endurance. I'm comfortable that I still have lots of time for that, and in the end if I'm even slower than before, so be it.
Because of the extremely tough bike sessions I am down to running only twice a week but I'm okay with that. With the calf muscle problem any more than that wouldn't fly anyway. My Saturday run is now at 30 kms and I will probably leave it at that until the Bay Race at the end of March. I am still undecided if I will run a marathon in April. Probably my soleus muscle will make that decision for me.
Again because of the bike workouts I found it impossible to maintain leg weights as well. I now do one upper body session per week, and am considering increasing that to 2. Not sure yet.
My diet goes along not too badly, but not great either. I need to hone my skills a little bit.
And most important of all my head is staying screwed on fairly well. I get a bit anxious now and again as I'm sure most people do, but no real threat of depression....touch wood...
And aside from training I have decided that while a job of some kind is probably in my future it will have to wait until after Aug 18th. I intend on making this Ironman, and this summer, all about fun!
So, Try Not! Game on! And lets' do it once more, this time in French. Encore mes amis!!
Love
Peter
